WASHINGTON -- The Washington Nationals won the National League East Monday night. They did not do so at Kyle Kendrick and the Phillies’ expense.

Instead, it took a win by the Pirates over the Atlanta Braves that created an odd scene of jubilation during the middle of the ninth inning at Nationals Park. It was odd because Washington was three outs away from getting blanked, 2-0, in a game it kind of needed for those first eight innings.

“It was the first time,” Charlie Manuel said, “I won and got beat.”

The Phillies (81-79) did not want to have the inevitable handing over of the divisional crown happen on their watch. But with the Nats holding a three-game lead over the Braves with three to play entering the night, any slip-up by the Phils or Atlanta would get the Nats’ clubhouse shrouded in plastic tarps.

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Sure enough, the Braves lost in Pittsburgh, 2-1, meaning they will have to participate in the wild-card play-in game. The Nats, meanwhile, didn’t allow the fact that they backed into their first division title dampen the celebration.

It also didn’t keep Manuel from getting his Irish up at the sight of the Nats bouncing around the dugout in the bottom of the ninth.

“Yeah it made me mad. Very much so. I’m a bad loser,” Manuel said. “Nobody should be a good loser. I’m a bad loser, I always will be.

“(The Nationals) did a good job. They deserve to win. They played the best.”

At least Kendrick knows the clinching wasn’t on his hands. In fact, the right-hander made one of the gutsiest starts of his career, working seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits and one intentional walk. And of his four strikeouts, two of them -- one of Jayson Werth to end the fifth, the other of Mike Morse after an eight-pitch showdown to end the sixth -- came with runners on third and the Nats trying to clinch this thing themselves.

“Not letting them celebrate on the field was kind of nice,” Kendrick said. “That was the best atmosphere I’ve ever seen here. It was fun to pitch in that.

“They’ve obviously had a good year, but it was nice to end the season like that for me.”

The Phillies got to Washington starter John Lannan in the second inning when Darin Ruf reached out for a tough pitch low and on the outside corner and smoked it just out of the reach of Bryce Harper at the left-center field fence, as it caromed away and allowed the speed-deficient Ruf to leg out his first big-league triple while Carlos Ruiz and Dom Brown scored.

From there it was up to Kendrick, who lowered his ERA on the season to 3.90 and improved his record to 11-12. It has been a season where the right-hander has raised his quality and consistency. And Manuel essentially said a rotation spot in 2013 is his to lose.

“Definitely. He’s in our rotation,” Manuel said. “Unless we get (David) Price or some other guy.”

Ruiz and Kendrick both had emotional reactions to the called third strikes to Werth and Morse to get out of jams. Ruiz considers Kendrick a more complete pitcher thanks to better location of his pitches and the emergence of his changeup. That said, the punch-out pitch to Morse -- his 93rd of the night -- was a 92 mph fastball with action that allowed it to paint the corner.

“He was working down and had a very good (season),” Ruiz said. “He got a lot of ground balls, a lot of swinging misses. That’s what he did in the game today.”

Kendrick and Ruiz were two of six Phillies still on the roster who were around when they won the first of their five straight division titles in 2007. Although the hopes of continuing that streak ended months ago, the Phillies are 44-29 since the All-Star break. The Nats are 47-30. So, for this half of the season, the teams have been even.

That, Ruiz hopes, is a calling card for 2013.

“I’m happy with the way we played in the second half of the season. The last couple of months we played good baseball,” he said. “That’s what we have to do for next year. We wanted to finish strong and show everybody we’re still capable of winning.”

In the final two innings Manuel put some young relievers to the test. It was a tightrope walk managed by Justin De Fratus and Jeremy Horst in the eighth, and Phillippe Aumont gave Jonathon Papelbon the night off and worked a 1-2-3 nith for his second save.